That quote is in reference to Neil Armstrong’s famous quote that we often think is “One small step for man…”.  The radio just happened to blip out for a second.  I bring this up because it was on July 20, 1969 that we first landed on the moon.  July 16 was the 40th anniversary of the launch so I want to dedicate this Weakend to crazy bastards that made the entire Apollo program possible.

The Apollo program was NASA’s response to JFK’s famous speech that motivated a nation.  Apollo 11 was the mission that got us on the moon.  What we tend to forget is that we went back to the moon so many times it almost got boring for the American public.  A total of 6 successful trips were landed on the moon, it would have been 7 if Apollo 13 hadn’t encountered those issues.  The BBC put together a quick summary of the missions.  The sad thing is that NO ONE has touched ground on the moon since 1972!  This needs to change, more on that in a minute.

No conversation about the moon is complete without the conspiracies of never having landed.  I don’t buy into them but you should research it for yourself.  I suggest Bad Astronomy because they pick apart each myth and debunk them.  If you like Mythbusters you can try and find their episode where the hoax myth was busted  but their content is not on Hulu or any other legitimate video site.  Just released yesterday are the first photos of the actual landing in 40 years.

The 40th anniversary is important because some “missing” footage has been found and restored.  The videos offer more detail than what we’re used to seeing.  In addition to be restored, what many people don’t know is the original footage was simply a camera pointed at a TV screen.  That was crappy quality even for back then!  I’ve really enjoyed watching these.  The full videos will be finished this fall.

So why haven’t we gone back to the moon?  Well NASA’s budget was sliced and the people the previously would have gone to college and studied engineering and science instead opted for art, computer science, and finance (guilty!).  The Space Shuttle program has been around for some time but was never designed for trips to the moon.  The space shuttle is due to be retired in the next year or so and a new program called Constellation will takes its place.

I wish Constellation got more press than it has, but perhaps that will change once they start actually launching crap.  As of right now NASA plans to launch the first test of the primary rockets that will be used for the Constellation program: Ares I.  The first scheduled test is August 30 and it will not actually launch people.  We won’t be launching people until 2014 which means there will be a period where NASA has no way of launching people.  They’ll have to partner with Russia (boo!).

Constellation is designed to better utilize resources, in other words they’re being frugal this time.  No more landing at airports, the crew module will be similar to the Apollo missions where a capsule will drop to the planet.  They are much cheaper than a shuttle to make and can be reused up to 10 times.  The module is called Orion and will have a few different versions for various missions.  One such version will GO BACK TO THE MOON!  That’s right, we’re going back!  The bad news is the scheduled launch is in 2019, 10 years from now.  If they are able to stick with the schedule though, they’ll launch just around a month before the 50th anniversary of the original launch of Apollo 11.

Happy anniversary NASA, the moon landing remains one of the most fantastic accomplishments of the human race, especially since it happened less than 70 years after the first flight of a plane.  Think about how amazing that is.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics.

categories: weakend